Bank YouTube Channels Thought to Be Boring... "They're Fun"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] When it comes to ‘finance’ or ‘banks,’ people tend to think of them as difficult and rigid. In particular, financial terms are often seen as something that general consumers find hard to approach.

However, recently, commercial banks have been appealing with friendliness through their YouTube channels while also providing financial information and entertainment.

Shinhan Bank’s planning stands out. On the 1st, Shinhan Bank revamped its YouTube channel to celebrate its anniversary. During this revamp, the bank consulted with active entertainment PDs and broadcast writers.

Especially popular is the small business support project ‘Ssa-daegi (Exploring Cheap and Amazingly Delicious Restaurants),’ which supports small business owners struggling due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

This program was created with the purpose of introducing restaurants frequently visited by 14,000 employees working at over 870 Shinhan Bank branches nationwide. The scenes are arranged to show bank employees visiting restaurants selected based on the average lunch price of Korean office workers, 7,500 won, and having meals there. It adds fun by revealing hidden restaurants that have never appeared on broadcasts or blogs and even sharing tips on how to enjoy the food deliciously.

The response has been enthusiastic. The first episode received over 30 comments such as “Am I the only one looking forward to the next episode?” and “It’s making my mouth water.”

The ‘Chinhan Bank’ corner, where bank employees explain financial terms to children, is also a hot topic. It shows the humorous struggle of trying to explain financial terms like credit cards, currency exchange, loans, and savings to preschool children but ultimately failing to make them understand. These short videos, about 5 to 6 minutes long, have recorded 40,000 to 54,000 views each for episodes 1 to 3.

This revamp led to an increase in subscribers. After the revamp, the number of subscribers grew by nearly 6,000. Currently, Shinhan Bank has secured about 31,000 YouTube subscribers.

A Shinhan Bank official said, “We named the YouTube channel nickname ‘Funhan Bank,’ a combination of ‘fun’ and ‘Shinhan Bank.’ It reflects the channel’s operational direction to create financial content that can be enjoyed as entertainingly as watching variety shows.”

Woori Bank has been operating ‘Wootube (laughter + YouTube),’ a financial entertainment channel, separately from its official bank channel since last year. The goal is to deliver both fun and information at once.

Currently, they are producing content such as ‘Eungeunnamnyeosseol (Subtle Male and Female Stories)’ featuring bank employees and a general public matchmaking program called ‘Chomyeone Silryejiman (Excuse Me, But This Is Our First Meeting).’

Woori Bank gained attention by uploading videos where bank terms are read in Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) style. Using the dry and dull terms as ASMR was a hit. This series of 10 videos recorded 30,000 to 40,000 views each.

Last month, SC First Bank also revamped its official YouTube channel name to ‘Gomini Money SC First Bank’ and made other changes.

The videos are categorized into four sections: ‘Asset Management,’ ‘Good Benefits,’ ‘Stories,’ and ‘History,’ enhancing customer accessibility by topic. Popular contents include ‘A-eun Unni A-eun Oppa (Knowing Bank Older Sister, Knowing Bank Older Brother)’ and ‘S City News,’ designed to spark interest in finance. They also introduced a bank employee vlog called ‘SC Life.’

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.